Community leaders urge input from hitch ?stakeholders'

LAKEPORT -- The three community leaders who met on Friday to discuss the recent classification of the Clear Lake hitch as a candidate for endangered species protection may represent different sectors, but they shared the same goal ? to educate the "stakeholders," which they agreed is practically everyone in the county.

"People are afraid of the unknown," said Peter Windrem. "Our job is to dispel those fears."

Windrem, a Kelseyville attorney, is chairman of the Chi Council, a Lake County group dedicated to the study, protection and restoration of the "chi" ? an American Indian word for the hitch.

He joined Lake County Farm Bureau Director Claudia Street and Lake County Chamber of Commerce CEO Melissa Fulton in an informal meeting Friday afternoon at the Farm Bureau offices in Lakeport.

Various reports and documents were spread across the table in front of them ? but they sounded like they were all on the same page.

"Whether someone approves or not, the hitch is going to be protected," Street said, referring to the "endangered species" status that will provide the species native to the lake and its tributaries with special protection at least until March of next year, by which time the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's (CDFW) one-year review will be completed and its recommendation made public.

A more important date for the informal "steering committee" that met Friday is June 14 ? the last day for citizens to provide comments and information to the CDFW.

The three said they share the basic philosophy of "what's good for the hitch is good for Clear Lake and the community."

The primary "stockholders" in the hitch's fate and in what the CDFW ultimately determines now include fishermen and farmers ? but eventually, whatever is decided will likely have an impact on everyone in the county, in some way or another, they said.

The three agreed that the CDFW has been cooperative in early discussions.

"It's not an adversarial relationship," Windrem said.

Street said she'd talked to CDFW representatives five different times on Friday.

Since the hitch species hasn't been studied nearly as much as salmon and other fish commonly associated with threatened species, CDFW officials admit that there's a learning curve for them also.

"We're all in this together, learning as much as we can," Street said.

"We've asked the Fish and Wildlife to enhance the communication process before coming down with any mandate," Fulton said. "We'd like to be able to work through issues with them, so whatever the adverse effects are, they can be mitigated."

Rich Mellott is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Contact him at 263-5636, ext. 14, or rmellott@record-bee.com.